Healthy start to delivering ambitious 50,000 affordable homes
target

2016-17 is the first year of the Scottish Government's
five-year commitment to invest over £3 billion to deliver at
least 50,000 affordable homes - 35,000 of which will be for social
rent. This commitment is key to building and sustaining a fairer
and more prosperous Scotland.

Our previous 30,000 affordable homes target was exceeded by more
than 10% - 33,490 much-needed homes were delivered in communities
across Scotland, with 22,523 of these being for social rent. From
Stornoway in the north to Annan in the south, Oban in the west to
Dundee in the east, many more households now live in safe, warm and
affordable accommodation.

By harnessing all of our skills and capacities, we can continue
to deliver more of the right homes in the right places to make a
positive impact on people's lives. Our bold and ambitious target
for another 50,000 households to have access to good quality,
affordable homes presents a huge opportunity to continue to meet
local housing needs, empower communities, benefit people's health
and improve educational attainment.

As Housing Minister Kevin Stewart noted on a visit to an
affordable housing development in Edinburgh during autumn 2016:
'High quality, energy efficient, affordable homes form
the cornerstone of socially and economically sustainable
communities and we will continue to work hard with the entire
housing sector to deliver more homes for the people of
Scotland.'

It was great to see that affordable housing approvals over the
year to the end of September 2016 were up by 34% compared to the
previous year - this is a really healthy start to the 50,000
affordable homes target. Close working with partner organisations,
including housing associations, local authorities and the private
and voluntary sectors, will continue to be crucial to ensure that
we build on this increase in the pace and scale of delivery.

These are such exciting times for housing. We really look
forward to working with you to transform our ambition into reality.
We ask you all to do all that you can to help deliver this
programme for households across Scotland. And, in return, we will
do all we can to support you in this.